


The Sea of Statues - Chapter 6

by c2t2



Series: The Sea of Statues [7]
Category: One Piece
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Massage, setting up all the things, treasure!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 11:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21269951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c2t2/pseuds/c2t2
Summary: At last - The Island of Treasure appears!





	The Sea of Statues - Chapter 6

Nami left Usopp outside the bar to guide Zoro to whatever had her so worked up. After a few minutes of walking they stepped out between two fancy buildings to see the rest of the Strawhats (minus Franky) arranged on a pier extending out over the water, passing by Guide who was patiently waiting for them on shore.

The two of them made their way to the others and stood with them. Nami pointed out to sea, but the gesture was unnecessary.

Across a short expanse of water, a mountain of treasure gleamed on the horizon.

The rays of the setting sun caught gold and silver in a blinding glitter, large translucent gemstones of every imaginable color bent the rays into rainbow lights that splashed across the sea. 

As they stood, staring in awe, Nami seemed to snap out of her stupor as an idea seized her. She looked around at the rapidly emptying docks. It was sunset, so most of the local seacraft had returned and been tied up for the night. Her eyes scanned the nearby boats and she fixed her gaze on a small wooden rowboat that seemed unattended.

“Nami, NO!” Usopp yelled as the navigator lunged.

Nami pulled up short, not due to Usopp’s shout, but Robin’s devil fruit limbs holding her fast. The navigator’s grasping fingers flailed, waving inches from the line mooring the boat to the dock.

“It’s like they’re daring someone to take them,” Sanji mused as he scanned the pier. Many of the fishing and passenger boats tied on the docks were moored with simple ropes and easily-undone knots. “Even in a peaceful port, this seems naïve.” He flicked a glance at the gleaming mountain of treasure.

Nami finally went limp in Robin’s grasp, turning a long yearning look to the treasure so near. The dark-haired archaeologist stepped up to lead the navigator away from the boat she had been so determined to steal and row to the mountain of wealth.

“Navigator-san,” Robin gently urged, “we ought to get back to the Sunny and figure out how much treasure it can hold, yes?”

“Right!” Nami immediately rallied, “We will calculate every cubic centimeter available on the Sunny, assuming we empty out all our supplies and sleep under the stars!”

“Uh, Nami?” Usopp said skeptically, “There might be a few problems with that…”

“You can’t eat treasure,” Sanji said grimly. “We need to keep our supplies.” He shuddered, and just like that the Strawhats’ cheerful mood darkened.

***

The sky was pitch black by the time the Strawhats made it back to the Sunny, evening long since passed into night. They dropped off Guide at his houseboat and boarded their ship.

Franky had the Sunny’s deck lit up nicely, and the cyborg shipwright was hanging out on a lawn chair not far from Strawman. Since coming aboard, the straw statue had been moved around a bit before finally taking up semi-permanent residence by the swing.

“Franky, I need you to calculate exactly how much space is available on the Sunny for treasure!” Nami had no time at all for pleasantries. 

“Sorry Nami-sis. It’s not the available space that is going to limit you. It’s the weight.”

“But Franky!” Nami wailed, “I thought Adam wood would be strong enough to hold any amount of treasure!”

“Strength is not the problem. Adam wood will keep the weight of the treasure from cracking the hull beneath it, yes, but the buoyancy is the real issue. If we filled all the available space the way you’re asking, the ship would still be structurally intact but it would be at the bottom of the sea.”

“Nooooo!”

Luffy giggled, “Sorry, Nami. And no we can’t dump our supplies to make the ship lighter either.” That was as close as he ever got to a rebuke.

“What about leaving behind unnecessary crewmembers to lighten the load?” Sanji asked, eyeing Zoro.

Zoro flipped him off.

Chopper mumbled something incoherent, and the rest of them looked at him curiously for a moment before realizing how far it was past his usual bedtime.

“Shall we return to this topic tomorrow, then?” Robin asked lightly.

“Right!” Nami declared, “We’ll be setting sail at first light tomorrow, no excuses!”

Zoro decided that he should go to bed earlier than usual tonight. It sounded like tomorrow was going to be a long day with little opportunity to nap.

But first, he needed his workout.

Zoro kept himself entertained this time by timing his blinks to happen on the exact middle of each squat for one hundred reps, then at the two-thirds mark for another hundred, then at the very beginning of the rep for another hundred...

Damn, he was starting to agree with Luffy that the crew _badly_ needed a musician. At least then he’d have something to listen to.

The workout was finally over. Zoro toweled off and went in search of Usopp, hoping to catch him before he went to bed.

The sniper was one of the night owls on the crew, going to bed well after midnight most nights. Their newly-recruited shipwright had a similar schedule, judging by the few days they’ve had him aboard so far. The two of them seemed to have bonded.

“Usopp, I could use your help in the crow’s nest if you have the time,” Zoro stuck his head into the work room to find Usopp and Franky both wrapping things up for the night.

“Sure, Zoro. Gimme a minute.” Usopp wiped the grease off his hands and put the last of his tools away.

“See you bros tomorrow,” Franky raised one enormous hand in farewell. His reaction was infinitely less irritating than Nami’s sarcastic wolf whistles or Sanji’s sneering innuendos at this particular ritual.

Zoro returned to the crow’s nest, tossing a sheet over the offensive aspects of the perverted massage table before Usopp climbed into the room – and Zoro left his trousers ON, thank you very much. Then he shed his shirt and climbed on the table.

In a way, the timid sniper was the single most talented member of their crew. Zoro had no use for art - drawing or painting or sculpture - nor did he know enough about chemistry to appreciate fireworks and whatever the hell else Usopp could do. Some of the sniper’s other talents were marginally more useful - His stories kept the more energetic members of the crew entertained, meaning they spent less time driving the rest of them crazy, and his games burned off some of their excess energy – Luffy alone was enough, so why did the others also have to be so damn noisy?

All that aside, Usopp had more important talents. If he hadn’t taken so easily to carpentry, Merry wouldn’t have lasted nearly as long as she had, his marksmanship had saved their collective asses more than once, and his ingenuity designing weapons had given Nami a fighting chance – which Zoro appreciated even though she was a greedy witch. At least she could hold her own in battle now.

Most importantly – in Zoro’s opinion – Usopp had proclaimed himself God of Massage. Zoro didn’t even try to dispute the lies he came up with. Sure, fine, he got his magic hands as a gift from a genie he had freed, or after winning a bet with the devil, or being trained by a mountaintop sensei after a grueling seven-year trial. Yes, sure, he had done all of that and more.

However he got it, Usopp had an almost supernatural ability to manipulate strained and exhausted muscles in exactly the right way, working out the soreness that had been a constant in Zoro’s life. Not only did their approximately every-other-day massage routine make Zoro’s training regimen more bearable, it accelerated healing and allowed him to train even harder. Some small part of Zoro’s increased strength could be credited to their cowardly liar. 

Usopp had a habit of talking during their sessions. He started with his usual stories and wild boasts while he worked on the thick muscles on either side of Zoro’s spine. But by the time Usopp’s hands radiated out across his shoulders, the sniper moved on to talking about whatever he was currently working on. Sometimes the topic turned more serious– he had talked a lot about Merry’s repairs since they had entered the Grand Line.

Today the sniper talked about Manoa, as he extended one of Zoro’s arms up over his head and dug mercilessly into a particularly stubborn knot in the swordsman’s back. Zoro was busy trying not to do anything undignified like drool or make embarrassing noises at the sweet agony of all that tension and soreness being beaten out of him.

“This place gives me a really bad feeling, Zoro.” Usopp finally sighed and gave Zoro’s back a pat, indicating he was done.

For his part, Zoro had turned into a pile of goo and wasn’t sure if he even had bones anymore.

“Why is so much treasure still sitting there?” Usopp continued, taking a seat a few chairs away, on the seat Zoro remembered could turn into a gurney. “Here, on the Grand Line, how has nobody before us been able to get past some measly little poison fog and a bird?”

Zoro’s body decided that okay, maybe he was still able to move after all, if reluctantly. He pushed himself up on the massage table and sat on it for a moment getting his bearings, staring down at his feet dangling over the floor.

“Everyone who has ever been strong enough or sneaky enough that they successfully took an eternal pose from the Manoan traders… and none of them were strong enough or sneaky enough to get away with the treasure. What makes us so sure we’ll do any better?”

“Do _you_ want to bring that up to Nami?” Zoro replied drily, the post-massage wooziness loosening his tongue, “Right. You go ahead and tell the greedy witch to leave all that treasure behind without even trying to beat the bird. I’ll wait here.”

“Jeez, Zoro. You don’t have to be like that about it,” Usopp pouted at him, “I’m just concerned is all.”

Zoro sighed, feeling a little guilty. “Whatever it is that guards the treasure, we’ll fight it,” he reassured the sniper.

“…And if we can’t fight, we’ll just have to be lucky.” He hadn’t meant to say the last part out loud, but there it was.

Since Zoro started his journey, there were three battles where he had fought and he had failed. Then, all that he had left was luck. Each of those times his luck had come through for him, and his opponent had chosen to not kill him.

Hawk Eyes. Enel. Aokiji.

Those were the three opponents he had been completely helpless against. Those three could have taken his life, and for a variety of reasons none of them had.

All the crazy training Zoro did was to ensure that that sort of thing didn’t happen again. He would never be helpless before an opponent again. He would make sure of it.

“Let’s go to bed, Usopp.”

Luffy was nowhere to be found as they joined the others in the men’s bunkroom, so he must be with one of the girls tonight.

It was hours earlier than Zoro was used to going to bed, but he was lucky tonight and fell asleep quickly.

***

Morning came too soon, bringing Nami pounding on the door well before dawn and hollering everyone awake. Sunrise was at seven and they needed to be ready to go by then.

Everyone groaned and dragged themselves out of bed. Sanji was the only one of the guys used to being awake at this wretched hour, and he was already in the galley making breakfast.

As the crew left their rooms, Zoro could tell immediately that Luffy had chosen Robin last night.

The dark-haired woman seemed softer, somehow. Her movements were lighter. Luffy worked as a kind of comfort to her that she had never had before.

When the group of them trooped out onto the deck to go to the galley, they discovered that they weren’t the only ones awake. Also an early riser, it seemed, was Guide. He stood at the railing nearest the Sunny and smiled over at them.

“Hello, pirate friends! Before you go off on your journey, I’d like to thank you again for viewing my art yesterday – and not attacking any civilians too, of course. Here, I have written a thank-you note in gratitude.” He folded a piece of paper into a paper airplane and sailed it over to the Sunny. Nami caught the paper and looked at it in disbelief.

“Shouldn’t _we_ be thanking _you_ for the guided tour? And for hosting some of us for tea?”

“I don’t think any of our crew have been properly trained in etiquette,” Robin mused aloud.

“Have a nice trip!” Guide waved to them, completely ignoring the girls’ chatter. Then he turned and went back inside his boat.

With a collective shrug, the Strawhats went to eat breakfast.

***

As per Nami’s demand, they were on the way at sunrise. A few hours later the treasure island came into view. They stopped and dropped anchor in the small strait between the treasure island and the Guatavita harbor.

Nami climbed onto a box to deliver orders combined with a motivational speech, Nami-style.

“Okay everyone. We are going to get that treasure NO MATTER WHAT.

“Robin! Take the last of our money and get every book you can find about that island!

“Usopp! After you drop Robin at the shore, you’ll take the Mini Merry and get a sample of that poison.

“Chopper! When Usopp returns, make an antidote to that poison, in case one of us is accidentally exposed.

“Franky! Engineer something to protect us from the poison, whatever it turns out to be.

“Any questions?”

“Yeah, who put you in charge?” Zoro was promptly cracked over the head by Nami’s fist and barely drew Wado in time to block Sanji’s kick.

“Why do I have to go to the poison island?” Usopp complained

“You don’t have to go ashore. Just get a sample! It won’t be able to hurt you if you don’t breathe or touch it – probably.”

“What do you mean ‘Probably?!’ And I HAVE to breathe!”

“I may have an answer to that,” Franky interjected, “The Mini Merry isn’t the only new craft in the Soldier Dock system!”

There was a break for gushing over the Shark Submerge.

“So I don’t have to leave the sub, that should protect me from the poison!” Usopp crowed, much more enthused about his task now that it wasn’t a suicide mission.

“We still don’t know what it is. It could be a corrosive gas that dissolves its container and will destroy the submarine with Usopp still trapped inside,” Robin mused.

“AAAAUGH!”

“You’re not helping, Robin.”

“We’ll find out more after - _if_ \- he comes back.”

“AUUUGGH!”

“Robin, no more scaring our sniper just because you think it’s funny.”

Zoro decided he had nothing to do here, so he would nap.

“Zoro! Since the Mini Merry has room for three people and Franky hasn’t been to the island, you accompany him. You’re both responsible for making sure the other gets back by noon!”

Zoro groaned.

***

Following Franky around wasn’t like following Luffy. Instead of following his nose to the nearest restaurant, Franky headed straight for the same industrial park Zoro had wandered into the day before. Oddly, even though it was late morning there was no one around today for the big cyborg to talk to.

“Well it’s definitely not a mining operation,” the shipwright mused, “I don’t see any signs. No mountains of waste rock and slag, no muffled explosions, no large excavation machinery or dirt-covered miners with pickaxes...”

When they got to the big press, Franky made noises of amazement and started to babble excitedly.

“Whoa! That’s the biggest hydraulic press I’ve ever seen. The thing’s got to be eight meters in diameter. Look at that surface! You know what that is? That’s diamond. You don’t get it? Look at the surface, see those scratches? There’s nothing that can scratch diamond. Nothing… except more diamond. For some asinine reason, they’re drastically reducing the value of their diamonds by breaking them. Why the hell would they do something like that?”

Zoro shrugged, “They weren’t crushing diamonds yesterday.”

“What, you saw people using this yesterday? What were they putting inside?”

“Uh… something metal?”

Franky made motions urging him to continue, but Zoro just stared at him blankly.

The cyborg deflated in theatrical disappointment.

The next hour or so continued about like that. Franky spent fully half the time gushing over enormous laser cutting machines. Something about “thermal stress cracking,” and “vaporization increasing absorptivity.”

Now Zoro had more stupid words to try and figure out during his next training session.

They left the eerily-abandoned industrial park and met an (empty-handed?) Robin at the Mini Merry.

***

Back on the ship, Usopp had returned with a few vials of the poison fog that clung to the lower altitudes of the treasure island. Chopper was working on an antidote and Franky left to begin testing potential protective equipment.

Zoro finally got to his nap.

During lunch, everyone took a break on the lawn deck and Nami questioned Robin on the results of her research. The rest of the crew gathered around in interest.

“The Manoans hide their library and historical records quite well,” Robin replied, “I managed to surprise and restrain a few of them before they could run away, but all they will say is the line about leaving the eternal pose and not killing anyone. So I have no documented sources about the island. I did, however, talk to some of the workers here on Manoa.

“The workers had no more concrete information than we do, only rumors. But you already know my stance on myth containing a grain of truth. One of the three rumors is that the treasure is fake, made of plastic. Another rumor is that it’s a test for screening the workers. That any worker who gives in to the temptation to go to Treasure Island suddenly vanishes shortly after they come back and is never seen again. The last rumor is that the poison fog on the island is biological in origin – specifically that it comes from a dragon. Several circumstances make that unlikely, but everyone I talked to referred to the poison as ‘dragon’s breath’.”

“Well that’s something at least, Robin-chwan. It’s a shame about the lack of books though.”

“Indeed. Nevertheless, I found something in our own library that may be of interest. Look.” She drew out a thick and old-looking book entitled _The Complete Encyclopedia of Mythological Creatures_, and turned to the page she desired.

“Whoooa!” Luffy gasped. “That’s definitely the bird we saw!”

The page was titled ‘Zhenniao,’ and on it was [a full-color picture of the bird](https://gems-of-war.fandom.com/wiki/Zhenniao?file=Troop_Zhenniao.png) they had seen carrying the treasure.

“It is undoubtedly the creature we saw. The artist clearly observed at least one of these animals at length and in detail, which is an encouraging sign for the accuracy of the text in the description.”

“But didn’t the bird we saw have an orange beak?” Chopper asked, tilting his head.

“Yes. The beak is a different color than I remember, but that could be explained in a number of ways. Different subpopulations of a species can have differences in coloration, or an individual’s coloration could change over time, or either the artist or ourselves may have encountered a mutation. I am hoping for those possibilities rather than the chance that the artist was taking artistic license or working from incomplete information, both of which would compromise the trustworthiness of the text itself.”

“What does the text say?”

“The text focuses mostly on the creature’s relationship to poison. The Zhen is immune to all poison, and is itself toxic due to its diet of venomous serpents. Its feathers can be used in assassination attempts, but its meat is too foul for anyone to be fool enough to eat it.”

If a few of the Strawhats flicked a glance at Luffy, well, nobody was going to call them out on it.

Robin turned to another page further in the book, “Here, then, is the entry for dragons. Just in case there is something to the rumors. There are several subtypes, and one of them,” she turned to an entry, “- indeed breathes poison smoke. We may be wise to remain alert on the island, especially due to this,” she pointed at part of the page. “Here it says that a dragon’s greed is its primary drive. Dragons love treasure so much that it draws them like a physical force. In fact, it says that enough treasure gathered together would be able lure a dragon out of death itself.”

***

It was nearing three o’clock in the afternoon by the time Chopper and Franky were satisfied with their antidote and protective gear respectively. They had five hours until sunset, and were more than capable of working during the night if necessary.

The Sunny approached the treasure island and anchored just offshore. Nami stomped up onto the lawn deck and stood in front of the arranged crew.

“Alright, listen up, numbskulls! We’re limited by weight, so we’re gonna make it goddamn _count_!” she pulled out a chart, “Here, I’ve drawn this up for you. Now this gemstone is taaffeite, you can identify it by its double refraction. The next one is what a black opal looks like, easy to identify at a glance. The next one is alexandrite, note that it’s highly pleochroic, and will appear blue-green under natural light. The next one is benitoite, it’s blue and glows brightly under blacklights - I’ll have Franky make us some. This next one is…"

“Nami-swan, there’s no way the idiots are going to remember all that,” Sanji gently chided, neglecting to mention that he was one of the idiots in question.

“But these are all things that are more valuable by weight than go-o-o-old!” she wailed, “and even worse, it’s not like you dingleberries can even properly tell 12-karat from 24-karat gold either!”

“Navigator-san, perhaps it would be better if we brought promising-looking treasure onto the ship in multiple loads, and you can sort through to find the most valuable pieces to keep. The rest would be returned to the island.”

“Robin, I love you.”

“I also love you, Robin-chwaaan~!”

Robin smiled.

“Well, how about some easy guidelines then? Listen up! A paper currency of any value weighs about a gram, and one gram of gold is worth slightly under 5,000 beri. Therefore any note of 5,000 beri or more is worth more than its weight in gold. Anything less would be weight better used for gold itself, got it? Some gems are worth more than their weight in gold, so bring me gems. Most importantly, bring me gold. Leave all coins where they are, since they are universally cut with cheaper metals. Validated 24 karat ingots are ideal, but jewelry is fine, too. The fancier it looks, the more likely it is to be 24 karat. Also bring me platinum. Don’t worry about confusing it with silver – out here in the elements, silver will quickly tarnish while platinum retains its shine.”

“Gold, highly-shiny silver, gemstones, and paper currency more than 5,000 beri,” Sanji muttered to himself.

It was decided that the Strawhats with the most upper body strength – meaning Luffy, Zoro, and Franky in that order – would climb the mountain of treasure and carry down loads of anything that looked promising. Usopp and Franky would design a cola-powered ski-lift-inspired system of buckets on a pulley to bring the treasure to the ship and the rejected items back to shore. Usopp and Sanji would load and dump the buckets from the piles brought down by the crew’s muscle. Nami and Robin would remain on the ship as the final appraisers of the treasure brought to them by the bucket system. Chopper would stand by with the antidote ready in case of accidental exposure.

Everyone who was going to the island suited up in Franky’s hazmat suits, and the Mini Merry ferried them to shore in several groups.

Stepping out of the boat, Zoro finally set foot on the treasure island.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes in the usual place!


End file.
